World 100m champion Justin Gatlin withdrew from Saturday’s Prefontaine Classic and a showdown with Christian Coleman.
It would have been the Americans’ first head-to-head since they went one-two in the 2017 World Championships 100m, relegating Usain Bolt to bronze in the Jamaican’s last individual race.
But Gatlin’s agent said the 36-year-old will miss the Diamond League meet in Eugene, Ore., due to right hamstring tightness picked up at a meet in Japan last weekend, according to Reuters.
Coleman, who twice broke the indoor 60m world record in the winter, also altered his Pre Classic plans.
Organizers announced Wednesday that Coleman would run the 100m and the 200m in a 90-minute span, but his management agency later tweeted he would race solely the 100m to be prudent in his first individual race meet of the outdoor season.
Gatlin and Coleman were scheduled to go head-to-head in a 100m in Shanghai on May 12, but Coleman withdrew ahead of that meet for precautionary reasons.
Gatlin went on to finish seventh in Shanghai in 10.20 seconds, his slowest professional 100m result in years, if not ever. Granted, it was raining in Shanghai and Gatlin ran into a slight headwind. Gatlin followed that effort by winning at a smaller meet in Osaka in 10.06 seconds into a headwind on Sunday.
The fastest man in the world in 2018 is American Ronnie Baker, who clocked 9.97 on April 21. Baker is in the Pre Classic 100m field with Coleman but nobody else who has broken 9.96 seconds in their careers.
Gatlin and Coleman are the world’s premier sprinters this season following the retirement of Usain Bolt, Wayde van Niekerk‘s torn ACL and Andre De Grasse‘s slow return from a summer 2017 right hamstring strain.
Gatlin and Coleman could face off at the USATF Outdoor Championships in Des Moines in one month.
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